Rathlin Ferry Stories In The News Letter On December 10

News Letter, Wednesday, December 10, 2008 3

www.newsletter.co.uk

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NEWS

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Revellers warned of stolen tickets

BY PHIL CROSSEY

[email protected]

PROBE: MV Canna

PICTURE: Steven McAuley

Ferry tender report set to reveal ‘serious issues’ BY SAM McBRIDE [email protected] A SIX-MONTH investigation will today reveal “serious problems” in the tendering process for the £4 million Rathlin ferry contract, the News Letter understands. The independent investigator’s report into the contract – which is subsidised through the Department of Regional Development (DRD) with £4 million of public money – will this morning be presented at a private session of Stormont’s Regional Development Committee. The ferry contract was awarded to Cork businessman Ciaran O’Driscoll in April. Although there is no suggestion that

Mr O’Driscoll did anything improper to win the contract, the DRD tendering process has been the subject of a series of allegations. It is understood that DRD permanent secretary Paul Priestly and other senior DRD civil servants along with John Dowdall, head of the Northern Ireland Audit Office, will attend today’s hearing. Press will not be allowed to attend the meeting but a copy of the “substantial” report is to be published this afternoon, DRD said. Several sources involved in the investigation said that today’s report will raise a number of serious issues for DRD to address. One said: “It’s such a detailed report with so many allegations.” North Antrim DUP MLA Mervyn Storey said that there must be no

“whitewash” by the department of “serious issues” surrounding the tender process. “We need answers and the fact that it is coming to the committee shows that it is a live issue,” he said. “There is more work to be done on this and I suspect that after there has been a presentation by the officials there will be more questions to be asked than answers given.” And MEP Jim Allister, who asked the Audit Office to investigate the contract, said of the investigation: “It must not be swept under the carpet – there might be some role for a briefing in private but thereafter I would have thought that they must go into public session and the public must know about this,” he said. ■ Full coverage of the investigation report in tomorrow’s News Letter

Company corrects online euro gaffe THE Rathlin ferry yesterday began accepting sterling as payment on its website after weeks of only allowing travellers to pay in euro. The latest in a series of gaffes to have beset the lifeline ferry service, payments were only accepted in the foreign currency until yesterday, despite sterling being legal tender in the UK. When the News Letter contacted Cork businessman Ciaran O’Driscoll, who runs the ferry, almost a month ago about the anomaly, he insisted that by the

following week customers would be able to pay in sterling. But on Monday travellers booking on the website were still only able to pay in euro. Local DUP MLA Mervyn Storey, who raised concerns about the currency issue, said that it was “totally unacceptable” that the ferry had refused to accept sterling on its website for so long. Mr Storey said: “I welcome the fact that the website reflects that sterling is our currency rather than the euro.

“But we should never have been in this position “We should never have allowed someone who was operating in Northern Ireland to put on their website that tourists and islanders could only pay in euro.” A spokeswoman for the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment’s Trading Standards Service said: “There is no legislation which specifically states that prices for services must be displayed in sterling. “However, the absence of a sterling price may, in cer-

tain circumstances, be considered to be a misleading omission under the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008. “In relation to goods (products), the Price Marking Order (Northern Ireland) 2004 requires the selling price to be in sterling.” She said that traders wanting to accept foreign currency had to also give an indication of the selling price in that currency, together with details of any commission to be charged.

FESTIVE revellers who are planning to attend this year’s Planetlove Boxing Day event in Belfast’s King’s Hall should be wary of stolen tickets, police have warned. The advice follows two recent robberies during which more than 100 tickets for the December 26 dance music concert were stolen. Police are now advising concertgoers not to buy tickets from unauthorised sources. World-renowned DJs such as Armin van Buuren, Lisa Lashes, Alex Kidd, John O’Callaghan and Marcella Woods will be performing at the show, which is expected to draw a crowd of up to 6,000 people. Tickets for the event cost £32.50 and £52.50 and the warning also applies to anyone who is thinking of buying a ticket as a Christmas gift. Each ticket for the concert has a unique barcode and will be scanned by an electronic admission system at the door. The stolen tickets – which have the serial numbers G5-151 to G5-200 and G1-127 to G1-199 – are now void and worthless. Anyone with information or who thinks they may have purchased a stolen ticket, or who is offered one for sale, should contact CID at Musgrave Street on 0845 600 8000.

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